Web communication technologies and use cases

Web communication technologies have evolved significantly, offering diverse methods for enabling communication between clients and servers, as well as between different web services. Below is a list of prominent web communication technologies, along with their applications and use cases:

1. HTTP/HTTPS

• Applications/Use Cases: The foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web; used for fetching HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and other multimedia files to render web pages. It supports RESTful APIs, SOAP web services, and is the basis for communication in most web applications.

2. WebSockets

• Applications/Use Cases: Enables full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection. Used for real-time applications such as live chat systems, real-time notifications, online gaming, and collaborative platforms (e.g., live document editing).

3. Server-Sent Events (SSE)

• Applications/Use Cases: Allows servers to push updates to the client. Used for one-way messaging from server to client in scenarios like live sports scores, stock ticker updates, and news feeds where high throughput and low latency are not critical.

4. WebRTC

• Applications/Use Cases: Enables peer-to-peer communication directly in the web browser without the need for plugins. It's used for video and audio calling applications, peer-to-peer file sharing, and live streaming.

5. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

• Applications/Use Cases: Allows web pages to be updated asynchronously by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes. Used for creating dynamic web applications, where parts of a web page can be updated without reloading the whole page.

6. GraphQL

• Applications/Use Cases: A query language for APIs, offering a more efficient, powerful, and flexible alternative to REST. It's used in applications that require complex, nested data retrieval with single API calls, improving network performance for mobile and web applications.

7. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

• Applications/Use Cases: A protocol for exchanging structured information in web services, utilizing XML for message format. Used in enterprise environments for financial services, payment gateways, and telecommunications services, where standardized protocol and security are crucial.

8. MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport)

• Applications/Use Cases: A lightweight messaging protocol, designed for devices with limited processing power and low-bandwidth, high-latency networks like IoT devices. Used for sensor data collection, device-to-device communication, and in scenarios requiring efficient, low-power consumption.

9. gRPC

• Applications/Use Cases: A high-performance RPC framework that uses HTTP/2 for transport, Protocol Buffers as the interface description language. Ideal for microservices, inter-service communication in distributed systems, and applications requiring efficient binary serialization.

10. Long Polling

• Applications/Use Cases: A technique where the client polls the server requesting new information. The server holds the request open until new data is available. Used as a fallback for real-time applications when WebSockets are not available or practical.

11. Webhooks

• Applications/Use Cases: User-defined HTTP callbacks, triggered by specific events. Used for integrating different web applications or services, such as sending real-time notifications from a payment gateway to an e-commerce platform after a transaction.

12. SignalR

• Applications/Use Cases: A library for ASP.NET that simplifies adding real-time web functionality to applications. It falls back to other technologies like long polling as needed. Used in applications requiring high-frequency updates from the server, like online gaming, voting applications, and live chat services.

Each of these technologies serves different needs and scenarios in web development, from simple request-response models to complex, real-time, and bi-directional communication patterns. The choice of technology largely depends on the specific requirements of the application, such as latency, data format, client compatibility, and the nature of the data being transmitted.

If you are preparing for interview for front end developer role, you must know these tehcnologies, applications and when to use which technology.